Seriously, how often do you lose the Internet? Once or twice a year? During those rare few hours, you can just tether your phone.

I think 85% of Windows PC users and 90% of Mac users would be better off with a Chromebook. It saves you a lot of money, there are never any upgrades to install, and it cannot get viruses.

Incorrect; Anything can get viruses. This goes back to the Apple vs Microsoft debates and the lower number of viruses that affect the Apple OS. The reason there are so many viruses for Windows is because Windows has been around for 30+ years and is in 80%+ of enterprises configurations. If you were a hacker, which platform would you target?

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December 4th, 2013, 9:32 am

Blueskies

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 2836

Re: Computer Help!!

No, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the platform.

A Chromebook quite literally cannot get a virus because it cannot install any local software.

You're still susceptible to web-based threats like phishing, but a Chromebook is invulnerable to any form of traditional malicious software.

December 4th, 2013, 9:55 am

TheRealWags

Modmin Dude

Joined: December 31st, 2004, 9:55 amPosts: 12278

Re: Computer Help!!

Blueskies wrote:

No, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the platform.

A Chromebook quite literally cannot get a virus because it cannot install any local software.

You're still susceptible to web-based threats like phishing, but a Chromebook is invulnerable to any form of traditional malicious software.

With respect, anything can and will be hacked. While the Chromebook out of the box may not allow installs, they can be rooted(jailbroken) which allows admin access. The SDK (Software dev kit) which Devs use to create apps/plugins/etc could also be used to gain access to the Chromebooks info (think user acct).

Also:

NOTHING is 100% safe when it comes to technology.

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December 4th, 2013, 12:36 pm

Blueskies

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 2836

Re: Computer Help!!

TheRealWags wrote:

Blueskies wrote:

No, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the platform.

A Chromebook quite literally cannot get a virus because it cannot install any local software.

You're still susceptible to web-based threats like phishing, but a Chromebook is invulnerable to any form of traditional malicious software.

With respect, anything can and will be hacked. While the Chromebook out of the box may not allow installs, they can be rooted(jailbroken) which allows admin access. The SDK (Software dev kit) which Devs use to create apps/plugins/etc could also be used to gain access to the Chromebooks info (think user acct).

Also:

NOTHING is 100% safe when it comes to technology.

Your reasoning is completely absurd. It would be like me taking my Volvo, stripping out all the airbags, seatbelts, and other safety features, then proclaiming that Volvos are death traps. Or dual booting my Macbook in Windows then saying Macs can get Windows viruses.

Without modifying a Chromebook beyond recognition, it is impervious to traditional malware and software degradation, things that have plagued Windows users for over two decades, and that sometimes (though rarely) can affect Mac users. Can bad things be made to happen? Yeah. But in general it's a far safer platform.

December 4th, 2013, 12:50 pm

TheRealWags

Modmin Dude

Joined: December 31st, 2004, 9:55 amPosts: 12278

Re: Computer Help!!

Blueskies wrote:

TheRealWags wrote:

Blueskies wrote:

No, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the platform.

A Chromebook quite literally cannot get a virus because it cannot install any local software.

You're still susceptible to web-based threats like phishing, but a Chromebook is invulnerable to any form of traditional malicious software.

With respect, anything can and will be hacked. While the Chromebook out of the box may not allow installs, they can be rooted(jailbroken) which allows admin access. The SDK (Software dev kit) which Devs use to create apps/plugins/etc could also be used to gain access to the Chromebooks info (think user acct).

Also:

NOTHING is 100% safe when it comes to technology.

Your reasoning is completely absurd. It would be like me taking my Volvo, stripping out all the airbags, seatbelts, and other safety features, then proclaiming that Volvos are death traps. Or dual booting my Macbook in Windows then saying Macs can get Windows viruses.

Without modifying a Chromebook beyond recognition, it is impervious to traditional malware and software degradation, things that have plagued Windows users for over two decades, and that sometimes (though rarely) can affect Mac users. Can bad things be made to happen? Yeah. But in general it's a far safer platform.

And you are welcome to your opinion of my absurdity. "Far safer" & "Impervious" are not analogous. I will agree it seems to be a safer setup, but it is far from impervious.

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December 4th, 2013, 12:54 pm

njroar

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 25th, 2007, 3:20 amPosts: 2833

Re: Computer Help!!

Blueskies wrote:

TheRealWags wrote:

Blueskies wrote:

No, it has nothing to do with the popularity of the platform.

A Chromebook quite literally cannot get a virus because it cannot install any local software.

You're still susceptible to web-based threats like phishing, but a Chromebook is invulnerable to any form of traditional malicious software.

With respect, anything can and will be hacked. While the Chromebook out of the box may not allow installs, they can be rooted(jailbroken) which allows admin access. The SDK (Software dev kit) which Devs use to create apps/plugins/etc could also be used to gain access to the Chromebooks info (think user acct).

Also:

NOTHING is 100% safe when it comes to technology.

Your reasoning is completely absurd. It would be like me taking my Volvo, stripping out all the airbags, seatbelts, and other safety features, then proclaiming that Volvos are death traps. Or dual booting my Macbook in Windows then saying Macs can get Windows viruses.

Without modifying a Chromebook beyond recognition, it is impervious to traditional malware and software degradation, things that have plagued Windows users for over two decades, and that sometimes (though rarely) can affect Mac users. Can bad things be made to happen? Yeah. But in general it's a far safer platform.

No hardware was changed on the Chromebook... it was completely a code hack. If there was code that could make the airbags, seatbelt and safety and security features be disabled, then yes it would be a deathtrap.

Traditional malware is whatever the current code is. Is it still safer than other platforms? of course, but it's only a matter of time.

December 4th, 2013, 1:03 pm

Blueskies

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 2836

Re: Computer Help!!

The other thing is that Windows' security problems go beyond popularity.

Android is already almost as popular as Windows (it will be more popular soon) and it has far fewer viruses, almost to the point of it being a non-factor. You basically have to be a total idiot to get a virus on an Android device, whereas you have to be pretty PC literate to avoid infecting your Windows machine with something.

December 4th, 2013, 1:08 pm

inheritedlionsfan

Team MVP

Joined: January 13th, 2006, 4:18 amPosts: 3348Location: Maryland

Re: Computer Help!!

Touchdown Jesus wrote:

inheritedlionsfan wrote:

Ok so here's what happened. I was transferring a file to my external hard drive and it froze my windows explorer. Couldn't get anything to work so I shut down my laptop. When I tried to access my external hard drive again, it said I had to format it before using. Obviously I don't want to lose all my files so I don't want to format it, but I can't access them. Is there anyway to access my files?

Thanks in advance.

Does your computer recognize the drive at all? As in, does it assign it a drive letter? If so, you can try running chkdsk.

Go to START Go to RUN type in cmd (command-prompt opens up) type in chkdsk #: /R (where you should put drive letter in place of #) Then it will start checking your drive, be patient here because it can take a long time to finish (depending on the capacity of the hard drive).

If Windows doesn't recognize it at all and doesn't assign a drive number, there might be a few other things to try. If you can give a bit more info it would help:

Drive manufacturerCapacityVersion of Windows you're running

Let me know if that helps, and if not I'll try to suggest a couple other things.

So it assigned it to drive F but won't let me access it at all. I downloaded a recovery program, but I had so much data on there I had to buy a new HD to store it all while I was recovering it. At least I got a deal for cyber monday. The "broken" one is a western digital 2TB.

The other thing is that Windows' security problems go beyond popularity.

Android is already almost as popular as Windows (it will be more popular soon) and it has far fewer viruses, almost to the point of it being a non-factor. You basically have to be a total idiot to get a virus on an Android device, whereas you have to be pretty PC literate to avoid infecting your Windows machine with something.

You get a Virus/Malware on Android devices just as easily as a PC, it's not any harder to avoid a virus on a PC and you don't need any advanced knowledge to avoid it either. They both happen from allowing an outside source to install something in your system. You also avoid them the same way, by avoiding unsafe links and not installing plugins/programs from unknown/unsafe sources. There are security loopholes in android just like windows and most of those loop holes come from things like flash and java plugins people update to do normal stuff on their devices. Android doesn't have a better security system in place it just has less people that care to attack the system, so popularity is a factor.